When Brian Rhoades attacked my defense of Idaho’s school choice law, he proved my point—public schools fear accountability more than they value education.
This editorial ran in the Tuesday 21 October 2025 edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
Brian Rhoades claims my Oct. 7 editorial (HB93 Frees Families from Moscow’s Failing Public Schools) could be summed up as, “My family is entitled to $40,000 of taxpayer money to send my eight grandkids to a private religious school.”
He’s wrong on every count: factually, logically, and morally. House Bill 93 helps working families, offering up to $5,000 in tax credits (or $7,500 for special-needs students) to those earning under 300% of the poverty level. A single mom with two kids making $70,000 can finally choose a school that works.
My own children don’t qualify, and that’s the point. HB93 isn’t about me; it’s about Idaho parents who can’t afford to leave failing schools. If Rhoades had read the bill, he’d know it targets families who need help most. His opposition hurts the very people he claims to defend: working parents whose kids are stuck in classrooms that fail at teaching math, reading, or science.
He calls private schools unaccountable, but that’s statist thinking, believing government defines success. Real accountability comes when parents choose schools that deliver results, something MSD’s scores prove it can’t. MSD’s latest ISAT scores show 60.9% in math and 63.8% in science, both failing grades. Moscow Charter parents have also acted, pulling their kids from MSD.
Logos students face even greater academic scrutiny: every year grades 1-11 take the national CTP5 exam, measuring reading, writing, math, and reasoning skills. Results are provided to the parents. Seniors must also complete the SAT, ACT, or Classic Learning Test, which emphasizes classic literature, grammar, and logic and is accepted by more than 300 colleges nationwide.
Then comes his favorite accusation — that private religious schools are “indoctrination centers.” That’s projection. Public schools have spent decades pushing political and ideological agendas under the banner of “diversity” and “inclusion.” Across the country, especially in blue states, schools push social engineering instead of reading, writing, and math. Here’s what now passes for “education”:
- Shutting down public schools during COVID, declaring children’s education “non-essential” while keeping bureaucracies and teachers’ unions fully funded
- Supporting boys in girls’ bathrooms, locker rooms, and sports under the banner of “gender inclusion”
- “Equitable math” that discourages marking answers wrong and undermines objective learning (the 1+1=3 controversy)
- Lowered academic standards to avoid “bias” in grading
- Teaching that traits like objectivity, individualism, punctuality, or correct English are forms of “white supremacy culture,” undermining personal responsibility and academic rigor in the classroom
- History and civics reframed around systemic racism and intersectionality
- Gender and sexuality lessons—preferred pronouns and identity policies—imposed without parental knowledge or consent
- LGBTQ+ clubs and lessons in elementary grades, including drag-queen story hours for young students—even kindergarteners—promoted under the banner of “diversity” and “inclusion”
These aren’t fringe ideas, they’re common practices defended by teachers’ unions and bureaucrats from California to New York. Parents see what’s happening, and they’re leaving for schools that still teach the basics. Teaching virtue, discipline, and respect for authority isn’t indoctrination; it’s part of education.
Rhoades claims private schools “don’t have to meet standards” or “kick out underperforming students.” In reality, their standards are higher as measured by academic results not bureaucratic compliance. And when it comes to discipline, removing chronically disruptive students isn’t exclusion; it’s protecting those who want to learn. That’s why classrooms at Logos, Jubilee, and St. Mary’s are calm, focused, and safe — unlike many public schools.
He also claims private schools “deny admitting special-needs students.” That’s false and insulting to schools like Jubilee, which has long served students with learning and developmental disabilities and at a fraction of MSD’s $18,655 per-pupil cost. Jubilee’s $7,000 tuition proves the point, yet Rhoades would deny poor and special-needs kids access to better options outside his ideology.
Rhoades ends with a moral appeal, claiming I’m “failing my responsibilities to the community” by not supporting public schools. But real community support means advocating for students, not systems. It means trusting parents to decide what’s best for their kids, not administrators or unions. The “backbone of our educational system,” as he calls it, is breaking because it values power over learning, proven by the reality no major academic metric has improved since the federal Department of Education was created in 1980.
What Rhoades and the teachers’ unions can’t admit is that HB93 exposes their real fear: accountability. The public-school monopoly is collapsing, and families aren’t waiting for permission to leave. Parents want results, not rhetoric; education, not indoctrination. HB93 doesn’t undermine public schools; it forces them to compete, innovate, and prove their worth. If Moscow’s schools want students back, they’ll have to earn them: one parent, one child at a time. School choice isn’t about politics; it’s about freedom over control, parents over power, and truth over propaganda.